Learners

The problem with the UK's driving license scheme is basically that you can slap a learning plate on a bike and go deliver pizzas in the middle of the night. That's pretty much it.

The thing is that in the UK you don't need formal driving lessons for most cases. The process is as follows: you apply for a provisional license; you're given a provisional license; you can drive with a learned driver on you side; when you feel like it you take a test and you get a full license. I won't elaborate much on my opinion about letting people out on the streets without an instructor with a second pair of pedals by their side, I suppose it's not too hard to guess. But if the system doesn't seem very fit for cars, it's clearly broken when it comes to bikes.

You see, if you don't know how to drive a bike you can't carry someone with you. Which means you can't take a learned driver while you're out. Which in turn means that you can pretty much go out on your own, with little to no strings attached. Which, to finalise, is a gold mine for delivery companies. What's cheaper, a properly licensed driver or a kid eager to earn his first couple of pounds? Well, a simple matter of looking out of the window and counting the L plates on pizza bikes quickly tells you the latter is the correct option.

And now I'm sad I don't have records of accidents involving learning pizza deliverers that I can quote to show this complaint makes sense. What a pity.

Percentages

Today I became part of the 0.2%. Of Londoners that walk to work, that is. To became part of the rich % I'll still probably need a few more decades. Anyhow, the point is that there were lots of movings to do, little time to write, mini blog post it is.

Beware

"Customers beware, pickpockets operating in this station." You know, it's almost an official trade.

Floods

Trains cancelled due to flooded tracks. Apparently British rails are not very good at handling rain. I mean, it's Britain, who would have thought there would be a lot of rain!?

Harrods

"Have you seen one of these?" "Huh..." "And have you seen two of these?" And on he went, multiplying red balls, making things appear in my hands, one neat magic trick after another. Quite a busy place, Harrods's toy world.
Actually, it's quite a busy place overall. Floor after floor, I believe this is the one place where you can find everything. Victorian furniture? Check. £90k pianos? Check. Big meteorites? Check. Too many chocolate kinds to list them all? Check. The good thing, however, is not that they have everything, in so much as that they actively demonstrate what they are selling. One guy is playing a piano, another is showing the latest generation camera. That guy in the beginning was showing off a box set of magic tricks, and making quite a good job of it, may I add, and making for an excellent atmosphere overall.
For once I think I can say I am thoroughly impressed with a place. Now I just need enough money to buy that £8k dinner table they had there and those £1500 chairs that go with it. Simple enough, right? I'll make an update 40 years from now when I buy those. Meanwhile, and just to keep the tone of the rest of the blog, I'll complain about the lack of maps and guides inside the shop. Except for the stairs on one entrance, they're not anywhere. How are rich people supposed to get around like this!?

Lost tourists

Today I gave directions to a tourist. Can I say I'm a Londoner now?

On bakeries

You know, bakeries? Those places where they bake bread and cakes and stuff? I'm glad you know, because they seem to be rather exotic places around here. Most coffee shops do have one form of cakes or another, but they are of the pre-packaged, plastic-y, variety. In house baking remains an illusive concept. And this regarding cakes; with bread it gets much funnier. Bread here seems to come in sliced form or big loafs. Small (normal?) sized bread isn't available in many places, and when it is it's labeled something like "Italian rolls", as if it were something fancy, and costs £0.40 a piece.

Bakeries seem so hard to find strolling down the streets at random that Time Out actually made a guide of the best bakeries in London; leaving that to chance would be a complete no no. But then again I haven't been to Baker Street. Maybe the bakeries are all clustered there and I just haven't noticed. In which case I would perfectly understand why a character like Sherlock Holmes would want to live there. The guy knew what he was doing.